


lower me down slow

by goinghost



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, NOT SAD, the major character death is julia
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-19
Updated: 2017-04-15
Packaged: 2018-10-07 21:04:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10369386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goinghost/pseuds/goinghost
Summary: "You," now he looked up, the book disappearing like his scythe, "Julia Burnsides, because of your unique experience and important role in Raven's Roost's quest for liberation, have been asked to put your skills to good use in service of the Raven Queen."And that was certainly...unexpected. "What?""I'm-- well She-- is offering you a job.”---Julia is dead but this is definitely not the end.Or: Kravitz bonds with the deceased, Julia gets a job offer, and Magnus isn't there





	1. tell the man in the black cloak

**Author's Note:**

> i have a love-hate relationship with julia-centric fics in the tag and i got tired of complaining about various interpretations of this character with one canon line and decided to try my hand at my own julia-centric fic. 
> 
> not to say other people have Wrong or Bad julias considering there's very little to go on because, as stated, she has one canon line, but there weren't many that i agreed with so i'm giving it a shot. 
> 
> please comment and let me know what you think! i'd love to talk to more people about julia, she's a big favorite of mine
> 
> title from 'generator second floor' by freelance whales, the happiest, most peaceful song about death i've ever heard

Julia had been prepared for death.

You don't play a starring role in a revolution without thinking about the possibility that you won't make it. You don't spend hours, days, weeks pouring over plans that might not work without considering that any strategically staged rebellion could be your last. You accept it, you keep going, you secretly write a will you know your husband wouldn't approve of, you hide it under the loose floorboard by your bed (the one he always said he was going to fix once things, "settled down"). Julia Burnsides had been prepared for death.

Well, death lowercase d. Death-- the real Death--was another story.They always tell you there's a white light and then you wake up somewhere else, somewhere special, somewhere she could see her mom again. Instead, she saw herself hit the floor, stabbed through the stomach. The black mixed with her blood told her floating spirit that it was a poisoned blade-- because of course Kalen was going to make sure he finished the job, too cowardly to accept the possibility of retribution on her part. Good luck, Governor, she thought mirthfully, because my husband is home in seven days.

Once he'd left, she'd been alone with the body. Julia could hear Raven's Roost collapsing, places she'd known her entire life shattering at the bottom of the canyon below, knew her father was dead somewhere in her gut. But she couldn't do a damn thing about it. Trying to move without a body was...difficult. Not that she stopped trying. That's how he found her, huffing from nonexistent lungs.

At first, he was a skeleton, which she understood. Grim Reaper, literal Death, Raven Queen's Emissary, gotta be a skeleton. Still, she stared; who wouldn't? He had a black cloak, shimmering in the doorway like moonlight off a bird's wings, the hood pulled up to shroud his bone-white face in shadow. No hair that she could see, but she figured that was to be expected. He had a wicked scythe with gleaming black metal. Really, the only way he could possibly be more scary and menacing was if his eye sockets glowed red with hellfire (they didn't.)

But Julia Burnsides didn't scare easily (or, at least, didn't let on that she was scared easily. _Brave face, Jules_.) "I supposed you're here to do something about...all this?" She gestured to the body (for all that Julia had been prepared for death, she couldn't come to think of it as her’s) on the floor and her ghostly form hovering an inch above the collapsed remains of the Hammer and Tongs.

"That I am." The skeleton stuck out a hand that seemed to...fill with something. Not light exactly, more like an inky blackness, until Julia was staring at the hand of a dark-skinned man, covered in little callouses that she supposed came from holding a scythe all day, but skin otherwise smooth. She'd been taught to be polite, so she looked Death in the eye while shaking his hand, noting that he wasn't a skeleton any longer but a handsome man. Full lips and clear grey eyes, stylish dreads pooling from the inside of his hood. He pulled it down with his other hand, scythe disappearing. "I'm Kravitz."

"Julia." She gave him a once-over, just in case anything else had changed. The cloak faded away in that inky blackness, replaced by a well-tailored suit. Julia didn't think she'd seen a suit like that since Magnus's at their wedding, and that one hadn't been nearly as nice. "I would say pleasure to meet you, but, you know, given the circumstances," she laughed, not sure how to finish that.

Kravitz laughed too, albeit a little awkwardly. He shuffled his feet, consulting a book he pulled seemingly out of thin air. "Right, well. Poisoned blade, huh? Nasty way to go. Though I suppose you've seen nastier given you're--er--background. Least it's not crushed to death. It seems someone wanted to personally make sure you were dead before destroying the support columns."

"Yeah..." Now, Julia was married to Magnus Burnsides, so she didn't expect a large amount of tact in her daily life, but she'd thought death would be a little different.

Kravitz continued awkwardly flipping through his book (she suspected only so he could avoid looking her in the eye.) "Yes, well, I actually have some good news for you."

And Julia had no idea what that good news could be other than, "He's alive? I mean he must be, he'd be long past Raven's Roost by now, but I wasn't sure if Kalen had--had done something, gotten him on the road." Kravitz was still avoiding her eyes. "He is alive, right? Magnus? Magnus Burnsides? My husband?"

Kravitz coughed, "Yes, yes he's--yes he's alive. Though I'm afraid you won't be able to see him for, hopefully, quite a long while." And Julia had expected that, really she had, but hearing from Death himself caused her to wilt a little. Kravitz continued, "And, while that is good news I'm sure, that is not what I would like to tell you. You," now he looked up, the book disappearing like his scythe, "Julia Burnsides, because of your unique experience and important role in Raven's Roost quest for liberation, have been asked to put your skills to good use in service of the Raven Queen."

And that was certainly...unexpected. "What?"

"I'm-- well She-- is offering you a job.”

"Oh." Her unique experience, huh? What did the Raven Queen need for a small town revolutionary folk hero? Was she supposed to charm the dead with rustic hospitality?

Kravitz didn't seem to know what to make of her response, "You don't have to accept, of course. The Raven Queen is a believer in free will. You could just as easily retire to the Astral Plane like most of the departed. A never-ending vacation, contact with deceased family members--really anything you want to make your eternity more comfortable," he sounded like a traveling salesman. Julia figured he had to do this pitch a lot, "I've heard it's very nice."

She thought about it, thought about what Magnus would say if he could see her now. Never-ending vacation, huh? He'd smile, _I think you've earned at least that, Jules_. Magnus would want her to take a break, but Magnus also knew his wife, and she knew that he knew that she could barely sit still and relax for a day without feeling like a waste, let alone an eternity.

"If I accepted, what would I do?"

"Oh, well, the specifics of your job are really up the Raven Queen," more flustered looking through his book, "but it wouldn't be anything too difficult, and you'd have a substantial amount of godly power at your disposal." As if to demonstrate, he summoned his scythe again then smiled softly, "the job has its perks."

"Would I--could I ever--"

"You wouldn't be allowed to contact people you knew while living, not unless necessary."

"Who decides if it's necessary?"

"The Raven Queen. And, while she is no stranger to love, she is very strict about interactions between planes." Kravitz gripped his scythe nervously, fiddling with it, "I'm sorry, Mrs. Bu--Julia, but it's just part of the job. We've all had people we've wanted to see."

"We? There are more of you?" More of us, she thought.

"Er--I'm the Raven Queen's only emissary as it stands, but there are others who work under her service as opposed to spending their afterlife on the beaches of the Astral Plane."

“So I wouldn’t be like you? Collecting souls?”

“Oh no, definitely not. You’d have a much less...involved job.” Maybe he heard something in the way her ghostly form shifted because he continued, “That isn’t to say you would never have my job. I didn’t exactly start as the Raven Queen’s trusted emissary, the fabled Grim Reaper. You could work your way up if you wanted. I can’t be around forever.”

Julia considered this. She realized with a start that she wanted this, and not in an idle way like how she sometimes wanted a cat or a rosebush, but in a way tangible as she was not anymore, with her spectral heart. She could do something with her afterlife, guide people, help people. With her unique experience and her background. “I’ll do it.”

“You will.” It wasn’t a question.

“When do I start?”

Kravitz pulled his hood up and his smooth skin melted to bone, “Now, I suppose.” He summoned his scythe and sliced it through the air a hair’s width away from Julia’s floating form. The inky blackness was back, swirling around the dead space and creating a portal. Kravitz made a questioning noise, no longer able to rely on facial expressions, and held out his arm. Julia took it. And then she was being yanked through the portal.

She caught a last glimpse of her home as the darkness churned around her, blinked just in time to see her body disappear in a shower of raven feathers.

 _Oh_ , she thought, _wonder how Magnus is going to find me._


	2. latin conjugations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Julia lit up, “So I could go back to get them?” She knew she shouldn’t live in the past--especially now that the irreversible has happened--but she’d still like to see her home again, hear the creak of the fifth step, run her ghostly fingers across Magnus’ works.
> 
> “Not your division, unfortunately,” he looked genuinely apologetic. “You’re in research and relations with a spot on the strategy and planning committee.” 
> 
> If Magnus were here he’d be laughing his ass off. “I’m an HR rep? Are you joking?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this is on the short side, but i'm having fun with where this is going! not sure how long it'll take me to crank out another one or how long that will be
> 
> hope you enjoy! 
> 
> chapter and fic title again from 'generator second floor' by freelance whales

Julia wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting. A dungeon, maybe, or an elegant courtroom; something dripping with godly power. Instead she’d gotten...this. “Cubicles?”

Kravitz seemed confused, “They’re effective workstations.” He gestured at the rows and rows of _effective workstations_ , guiding her to a secluded corner. “And here is your’s. You’re free to customize it as you like, we have a Fantasy Costco on campus and the Raven Queen can provide any items from your life that you wish to hang up or spread around.”

_Hmmmm,_ Julia considered her old bedroom, the small painting Magnus had commissioned of them in their wedding garb standing under the gazebo he’d built, an entirely new kind of magic in their eyes captured so beautifully by the traveling painter (he’d come through Raven’s Roost with a caravan full of people with similar talents). “Any items?”

“Well, first you submit a request, but unless it proves a danger to someone--which really would only happen if it had necromantic magic--then you can keep it here at your desk.”

Julia tried to remember what of the campus she’d seen through the windows outlining the office space, “Just at the desk?”

“Where else would you keep it?” Kravitz continued to be confused by her.

_Really getting off on the right foot, aren’t you, Jules,_ she thought, _especially considering he’s your boss now probably._ “Somewhere like an apartment or a bedroom or…” at Kravitz’s increasingly blank stare she tried to remember if she’d heard anyone mention living quarters when she and Kravitz had stepped in. Maybe that was it, _living_ quarters. _You aren’t living anymore, Julia._

“We don’t have anything like that,” Kravitz said, confirming her suspicions. “You won’t need to sleep or bathe or eat now that you’re here, though you can if you’d like.” He pointed to the center of her cubicle, just shy of the desk, “If you request it we can put a bed right there. Depending on the size the space should automatically adjust. Think of it as a pocket dimension.”

Oh, Magnus would get a kick out of this. _An expanding workstation? Think of all the projects I could store_ , he’d say, _we wouldn’t have to sell so much just to have room._ He always out-carved his space. “How do I put in a request?”

Kravitz snapped and a wooden box with a slot carved in the top appeared, along with a floating raven-feather pen and a pad of paper. Julia eyed them suspiciously until Kravitz coughed like an apology, like he knew so much magic was foreign to her but didn’t want to outright say sorry because--and this was a guess on Julia’s part--interacting outside of the allotted job was ill-advised and not something he’d had to do in a very long time. She wondered when was the last time someone asked him out for a drink. Or whatever spirits and undead liasons of the Raven Queen did in their spare time. _Does this place have a bar? A duck pond? People can’t just sit in their offices all day._

She took the pen and filled out the form on the pad, requesting the painting and her wedding ring (which had been absent from her finger when she’d died), almost relishing in the weirdness of all of it. This was her life (or lack thereof) now. Magic pens and boxes and nervous grim reapers always trying to do something with their clasped hands.

Kravitz tried for a painfully awkward smile as she ripped off the paper, folded it, and stuck it in the slot. “We’ll see about getting those items as soon as possible.”

“Can you make them appear like you did with the other things? Or do you have to retrieve them?”

“I can’t make them appear, no. And I don’t retrieve them, that’s a little below my pay grade. Spirits like you are tasked with that.”

Julia lit up, “So I could go back to get them?” She knew she shouldn’t live in the past--especially now that the irreversible has happened--but she’d still like to see her home again, hear the creak of the fifth step, run her ghostly fingers across Magnus’ works.

“Not your division, unfortunately,” he looked genuinely apologetic. “You’re in research and relations with a spot on the strategy and planning committee.”

If Magnus were here he’d be laughing his ass off. “I’m an HR rep? Are you joking?”

Kravitz looked a little startled, “No I--well you aren’t exactly--”

“Didn’t you say I’m here because of what I did for Raven’s Roost? I thought I’d be organizing people, fighting for what’s right, saving the world from terrible necrotic doom.” She doesn’t want this, this quiet office job in the corner of a quiet office building with a quiet office afterlife. Julia had only ever wanted adventure, but Magnus liked small town Raven’s Roost and she loved Magnus, so she stayed. For him. And when the opportunity came to be a part of something bigger, she took it and led a goddamn revolution. She’d thought that opportunity had come again but apparently not.

“And you will be,” Kravitz said placatingly, “you’ll be the first to know if there’s any--er--necrotic doom happening. Research and relations keep the peace and make sure the cycle of life and death stays turning and proper burial rites are observed and people are--well, not happy, but at the very least okay with death. And the strategy and planning committee keeps this place moving in tip top shape,” he coughed, “and they could use some...assistance.”

“Small town revolutionnaire folk hero kind of assistance?” “Yes, that.” Julia breathed, the sensation strange and unnecessary. “Okay, lead the way.”

She was starting to notice that Kravitz looked vaguely like a rabbit when startled, “Now?”

“No time like the present.”

“But you haven’t started your paperwork yet,” he said, sounding panicked.

“It’s not like I can _leave_. Paperwork will be here when I get back. I want to meet with the strategy and planning committee.”

Kravitz, probably realizing she won’t take no for an answer, pulled a stone out of his cloak and whispered something she couldn’t make out into it. “Follow me.”

**Author's Note:**

> i've begun writing a second chapter and have tentative plans for a third, but those might not come into fruition so no promises! it's likely i'll write more in this verse but nothing is set in stone
> 
> catch me yelling about magnus and julia burnsides on [my twitter](%E2%80%9Dtwitter.com/GHOSTZVNE%E2%80%9D)
> 
> also some alternative titles (all still from 'generator second floor' by freelance whales):  
> tell the man in the black cloak, latin conjugations, such a lovely sunday, don't fix my smile


End file.
